


departings/reunions

by fantasmagorie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crying, Kissing, M/M, Slavery, a lot of crying, finally uploading it, i wrote this for shatt week like 800 years ago, prison/labor camps, uh i think thats it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 19:39:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8258071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasmagorie/pseuds/fantasmagorie
Summary: Time passes slowly in the labor camp. There are long, grueling hours with little rest and little food. So Matt does the only thing he knows how to do in order to fill up the time: he talks. Matt tells stories about Mom, about Dad, about Katie, about his friends at the Garrison. And about Takashi. Some days he talks until his voice is hoarse, and some days he’s content to hear everyone else talk about their homes, about their family and friends that the Galra had torn them away from. It’s during this time Matt realizes how utterly in love with Takashi he is.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ha matt is gay

Time passes slowly in the labor camp. There are long, grueling hours with little rest and little food. So Matt does the only thing he knows how to do in order to fill up the time: he talks. Matt tells stories about Mom, about Dad, about Katie, about his friends at the Garrison. And about Takashi. Some days he talks until his voice is hoarse, and some days he’s content to hear everyone else talk about their homes, about their family and friends that the Galra had torn them away from. It’s during this time Matt realizes how utterly in love with Takashi he is. He’s been slowly forgetting people – like the girl who had been Matt’s communications officer in the Garrison, or the boy he had liked in his study group – but Takashi was the only non-family member that he could remember vividly. He never ran out of stories about his family, or Takashi. Someone asks him, innocently, how he and Takashi got separated, and Matt’s hand lingers on the jagged, rough scar across his knee as he recounts the story.

Matt hears talk of Voltron. Quiet whispers of Voltron. The guards and patrolmen have taken to making an example out of anyone caught speaking openly of Voltron. The empire tries to tell them that Voltron was and is just a fairytale that mothers tell their children at night, but Matt knows that can’t be true. The way he sees eyes light up with light once lost, the way people speak, voice overflowing with such raw emotion – feelings that the Galra had tried to beat out of them – as they whispered tales of five great heroes coming to not just their rescue, but the entire universe’s. The mines come alive with this quiet chatter, and Matt finds himself listening to the tales of Voltron’s daring rescues of helpless people. Matt entertains the idea of a giant robot man with lions for hands and feet coming to take them from the clutches of the Galra for good, and for once, he thinks he might actually get to see his family again – despite Matt’s (cynical? scientific?) mind telling him that it’s a little impossible.

The impossible becomes possible in/after what Matt estimates is maybe a month later – at least according to his sleep cycles. There’s rumbling coming from outside the mine, and all the guards disappear onto the surface. The work slows to a complete stop as word spreads deeper into the mine of what is happening above. Voltron, they whisper, then say, then shout. Half an hour later six people arrive, and the woman dressed in a pink and purple battlesuit steps forward. Her name is Princess Allura, and she’s arrived to liberate them, along with Paladins of Voltron. Matt feels like crying from relief. 

Matt doesn’t really realize who the paladins are until he’s out of the healing pod. His vision is blurred (his glasses broke a long time ago), so he’s not sure. But Matt swears the green paladin – who had just taken their helmet off – looks just like his sister, Katie. The Green Paladin wasn’t Katie, he told himself. Katie was home, Katie was safe. Matt repeats this mantra in his head until he notices he’s being offered a cup by the Blue Paladin. He accepts with a quiet thanks, but the Blue Paladin is squinting at him.

“Hey, Pidge!” The Blue Paladin calls, gesturing for the Green Paladin to come closer. “This guy looks just like you!”

“What are you talking abou-” The Green Paladin cuts themselves off, and Matt freezes, almost dropping his cup. The Green Paladin sounded just like Katie.

“…Katie?” Matt asks tentatively, voice cracking. The Green Paladin comes closer, walking quickly. The closer they get, the more Matt understands. Katie is the Green Paladin. Matt puts his cup down beside him and feels his face scrunch up, hot tears already welling up in his eyes.

“Matt!” Katie shouts, throwing her arms around him and bursting into tears. Matt does the same almost immediately; he’s always been a sympathetic crier, and the entire situation called for crying, anyway, so he just hugs her tight and ignores the feeling of people staring at them. He vaguely hears the Blue Paladin saying something about leaving, and then the soft shuffle of footsteps, but the words don’t register with Matt because oh my god, I thought I’d never see Katie ever again.

After a while, they break apart and Katie wipes her face and tells him about how she kept his glasses; or . Matt can barely tell her how smart she is for that, how brave she is, or even quip about how great it is to finally be able to see properly again. All that comes out is a croaky thank you as he puts his dearly missed glasses back on. He’s not at his most articulate right now. There’s a small cough, and a rugged, scarred, but so familiar Takashi is holding his arms out a little awkwardly with a smile that’s a bit too dorky to be real. Matt practically flings himself into Takashi’s arms and bursts into tears again. He hears Takashi sniffle a little, too. Matt isn’t sure what leads him to make his next decision, but Matt stands on his tiptoes and grabs Takashi by the collar on his armor and pulls him in for a kiss. It is clumsy, and in a room with more strangers in it than he cared to count, and he could hear a wolf whistle and the sound of Katie pretending to vomit during it, but he lets them stare. When he finally breaks apart, Takashi is crying and beet red, and Matt is sure he’s the same.

“I missed you, Takashi,” Matt says, his voice hoarse.

“I missed you too,” Takashi says softly. At almost the same time, a third voice, Princess Allura’s, Matt thinks, speaks up.

“I-I’m sorry, but….isn’t his name Shiro?”

Matt hasn’t laughed this hard in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> if i missed anything in the tags pls let me kno
> 
> i cross-posted this from my tumblr (splash--woman)......it looked a lot longer there i swear


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